Stonewall

Your nominations have been counted, your thoughts have been collected and your faithful Biscuit team has cogitated, confabulated and contemplated every single line you’ve written. It hasn’t been easy, but we are at last ready to present the Biscuit Purple List 2017.

We asked you who inspired you, who made you proud and who you though deserved more recognition than they got, and you answered in your hundreds. You told us you value visibility as much as outreach and community building efforts, with household names like Sara Ramirez, Joe Lycett and Nicola Adams appearing alongside prominent activists like Jen Yockney and Meg-John Barker and community organisers like Sali Owen.

From the worker bees of grassroots organising to the Queer elite, the full gamut of the bi community is represented here. YouTube starlets who educate while they entertain; local group leaders who do so much more than just give us a space to… Continue reading →

Christopher Biggins’ biphobic remarks have been ruled acceptable by Ofcom. That’s not great news, but there is a sunny side to this situation, says Dr Helen Bowes-Catton of BiUK.

It’s not fashionable to admit it, but this whole Biggins-Big-Brother-biphobia saga really cheers me up- and not just because it’s so delightfully alliterative. I know that’s an odd thing to say, but bear with me and I’ll explain.

Now don’t get me wrong, I was really disappointed that Ofcom, responding to complaints about Biggins’ biphobic remarks on Celebrity Big Brother, incomprehensibly decided that, actually it was ok to be offensive about bisexuals on national TV. Like a lot of people, I found myself speculating wryly about the likelihood of a contestant getting away with similar remarks about lesbians or gay men. But on balance, the way this whole thing has played out seems to me to offer more reasons… Continue reading →

In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the results of a survey into domestic- and intimate partner violence (IPV) in the USA. It found that 38% of bisexual men and 75% of bisexual women and had experienced physical or sexual or mental abuse from a partner. In the UK, Stonewall research has also found 75% of lesbian and bisexual women have experienced domestic abuse. Two thirds of the perpetrators were female.

We asked four bisexual survivors of domestic- and intimate partner violence to tell us their stories, and this is what we learned. [Contains frank descriptions of abuse in survivors’ own words]

We don’t have a frame of reference for our experiences

Stereotypes abound when it comes to partner violence. We believe men are abusers and women are abused and we believe same-sex relationships are by their nature free from violence. We believe abuse must… Continue reading →

With contributions from some of the UK’s leading bi activists and writers on sexuality (including contributions from Biscuit’s editorial team), Purple Prose promises to be an informative and interesting snapshot of the community as well as a guide for bisexual people and their friends.

One of the contributors told Biscuit, “The book has pretty much already been written. It covers everything from coming out and finding the community, to how bisexual people experience their gender, how our labels might change and being bi at work. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“The last book by British bi activists, Bisexual Lives, was published way back in 1988, and… Continue reading →

Stonewall, the biggest LGBT charity in the UK, hasn’t always had the best track record when it comes to bisexual visibility in its campaigns. But things are changing fast under a new leadership team and here at Biscuit we salute their efforts – and bring you two bi activists very proud to be speaking out under the Stonewall banner…

Sarah Lynn, Communications Officer, Stonewall Cymru

I recently started my first relationship with a woman. Despite knowing that I identify very openly as bi (pansexual to be exact), and that I had previously dated men, my housemate and friends like to crack jokes about how me and my girlfriend will soon be moving in together and getting a cat – because that’s what lesbians do.

Ridiculous stereotypes and tired jokes aside, knowing that even though I am very open about my sexuality, it is still not taken seriously by those… Continue reading →

By now, you’ve probably seen the trailer for Stonewall, the film accused of whitewashing, ciswashing and bierasing events that took place on Christopher Street, New York, in June 1969. If you’ve decided to #BoycottStonewall, consider watching one of these films instead.

1. Pay it No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P Johnson

Marsha P Johnson was an African American, bisexual transwoman, famed for being photographed by Andy Warhol and for her role in instigating the Stonewall Riots. This documentary tells her story though original footage of interviews with Johnson as well as interviews with her family and friends. You need to see it immediately.

(full doc)

2. Stonewall (1995)

Stonewall, the final work of director Nigel Finch who died shortly after filming finished, is a fictonalised account of the riots written by Rikki Beadle Blair and based on the memoir Stonewall by Martin Duberman.… Continue reading →